synaptic and update-manager don't start any more

[ingo]

Hardy Beta

since update to kernel 2.6.24.15 neither synaptic nor update-manager can be launched from the main menu.
Seems that gksu is unable to ask for passphrase, because also in a x-term the command 'gksu synaptic' does not work.

The applications themselfs work properly:
in a root-terminal (I got a true root-account here) I can call synaptic and update-manager and they work properly.

root@pp:/home/ingo# apt-cache policy gksu
gksu:
  Installiert:2.0.0-5ubuntu2
  Mögliche Pakete:2.0.0-5ubuntu2
  Versions-Tabelle:
 *** 2.0.0-5ubuntu2 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

additional information:

seems that only amd64 version is affected. I checked with i386 version in VirtualBox: it is ok there!

[Tobias Stegmann (punischdude)]

confirming

same problem here using gksu synaptic on amd64, but it crashes _after_ asking for passphrase

gksudo works properly

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

still the same here after today's updates (April 10. 22:00 UTC):

on amd64 the problem persists, all ok on ia32 platform.
I do consider that release critical

[Tobias Stegmann (punischdude)]

could be a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gksu/+bug/55172

gksu works for me now on amd64

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

probably, but I do nhot have enough knowledge to decide wether it is exacltly the same.
At least with update-manager it appears similar, though update-manager is called from the menu without gksu. But I have the same also with synaptic (it is called with gksu from the menu) which does not start at all anymore - I even do not see the annoying 'double-popup's' asking for password twice.

Also bug 55172 seems to have never been fixed (set to undecided).

Maybe it is also related to amount of RAM:
on Hardy-amd64 I have full access to 6GB of ECC-RAM, while Hardy-ia32 runs in a VM with just 1GB of RAM.

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

addition:
I just checked the RAM-issue by booting with option 'mem=2048M' -> the bug persists.

However if update-manager is hanging, and I do kill the process named
'gksu --desktop /usr/share/applications/update-manager'
it continues and checks for upüdates.

At that occasion I noticed that on Feisty the process is absolutely different, it is named:
'/usr/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/update-manager'

So that might be of any help?

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

I now checked with the Hardy release - still the same: synaptic and update-manager not working from GUI.

It does not relate to the kernel as reported previously, it only was introduced at that time.
It happens as soon as I create a true root-account with following line in /etc/sudoers:

Defaults !lecture,tty_tickets,!fqdn,targetpw,timestamp_timeout = 0

su and sudo work fine, they respect /etc/sudoewrs and request the target-password.
synaptic and update-manager just die silently.

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

has been solved with release.

Actual root cause was:

sudo/gksu communicate with corresponding applications via network.
Network-manager spoiled /etc/hosts, did not handle change in domain name properly.
After asigning an alias without '.domain' appended makes sudo/gksu happy and now also synaptic and update-manager work.